Proposed Tax Would Beautify Road Medians

Southwest Orlando Residents Will Be Asked To Approve A Half-mill Property Tax To Make Improvements To Six Roads.

November 21, 1996|By Cory Lancaster of The Sentinel Staff

About 14,000 southwest Orange County residents soon will be asked to approve a new property tax to pay for landscaping six major roadways in the area.

County Commissioner Bob Freeman is proposing a half-mill tax that would raise about $600,000 a year to landscape, irrigate and maintain the road medians and rights of way.

Commissioners have scheduled a public hearing on the tax for Dec. 17. Freeman plans to set up several town meetings to inform residents about the tax before the county mails ballots early next year.

To be approved, two-thirds of the ballots that are mailed back to the county must be in favor of the tax. It would cost an extra $37.50 a year for the owner of a $100,000 home that qualifies for a $25,000 homestead exemption.

Freeman says that's a small investment, considering property values would increase with high-quality landscaping similar to what's seen at MetroWest.

''If people want the same type of quality and look for the community, they have to be willing to tax themselves,'' he said.

The county would need about $1.2 million to landscape the six roadways: Turkey Lake Road, Sand Lake Road, Conroy-Windermere Road, Apopka-Vineland Road, Dr. Phillips Boulevard and Hiawassee Road, Freeman said.

A new board, which would be composed of residents and would oversee the work, could decide after two years whether to decrease the tax or undertake more projects, such as landscaping other roads and burying utility lines underground.

The tax would be imposed on about 14,000 residential and commercial property owners in an area generally bordered by the Butler Chain of Lakes to the west, Turkey Lake Road to the east, Conroy-Windermere Road to the north and Lake Buena Vista to the south.

The proposal comes at a time when county officials are planning to ask voters for other new taxes.

The county school system, for example, wants to ask for a half-penny increase in the sales tax next year to build more schools. The county and city governments also are weighing plans to ask voters for a sales tax increase to pay for transportation and park improvements.

That may be a bit overwhelming for residents.

''We would have serious questions about the timing of this,'' said Dick Spears, a resident of the Bay Hill subdivision in the area and chairman of the Orange County Homeowners Association.

Spears served as chairman of a Roadscape committee three years ago that tried to raise donations to pay for landscaping some of the same roads. He resigned from the group when no donations were received, he said.

''The private donations have failed to materialize, and I'm sure Bob (Freeman) wants to save the program,'' he said.

The Orange County Homeowners Association, an umbrella group for 135 associations, will meet with homeowners groups in the area before taking an official position on the tax, Spears said.

''I would expect that we would take the position that landscaping of a thoroughfare - if it's going to be a government program - is a want, not a need. And we have so many other urgent needs,'' he said.

Freeman countered that the tax shouldn't be viewed as competing with the other tax proposals. The landscaping will be a community project in which residents can see what their taxes are paying for.

''If people see what they're getting for their money, they're more apt to raise taxes,'' he said. ''In this particular case, the people will be managing their own project.''